The Getaway God (Sandman Slim 6)

“Find it. Whatever it is. I’ll pay for it.”

“We’re getting ahead of ourselves. Let’s take things one step at a time. The first step is you leaving.”

“I don’t want to leave her alone.”

“She won’t be alone and you’re going to be in the way. If you want what’s best for her, go home.”

I look from her to Fairuza and back again. They don’t want me here. All I do is bring them broken ­people. And maybe Allegra is right. I probably will be in the way.

“Thanks. Call me the moment you know anything. Middle of the night. Whenever.”

“I know. Now go.”

I STEP THROUGH a shadow and come out in Max Overdrive. Kasabian is kneeling on the floor with a spray bottle of cleaner and a roll of paper towels, wiping up my blood.

“Not exactly life at the Chateau Marmont,” I say.

“If this was the Chateau, she still would have attacked me, but there’d be someone else to clean up the mess.”

“I’ll pick up the discs.”

“Why don’t you get down here and work on th

e blood?”

“You’re doing a great job. I don’t want to spoil your rhythm.”

“Fuck you.”

I pick up the DVDs and Blu-­rays and stack them on the counter. They can fucking wait until tomorrow to go back on the shelves.

“She going to be all right?” says Kasabian.

“I don’t know. I’m waiting to hear.”

He doesn’t say anything for a minute.

“Candy’s all right,” he says. “Recent events aside.”

“Yeah. She is.”

“Did you see Fairuza at the clinic?”

“Yeah.”

“Did she say anything about me?”

I give him a look.

“Right. Wrong time.”

He finishes up the floor and climbs creakily up on his mechanical legs.

“Thing is,” he says. “Candy is a good influence on you. Around her you’re almost like a person.”

“I know.”

He throws the bloody paper towels into the trash and puts the spray bottle back in the storeroom.